After a two-year-long bankruptcy process, Scandinavia’s flagship airline SAS AB is now under the ownership of Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP, with former Novo Nordisk A/S executive Kare Schultz at the helm of its new board, Bloomberg News reported. The move comes amid much overdue airline consolidation in Europe in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a recent slowing in travel demand. It will also shore up Air France-KLM’s position in the Nordics, a reliable source of active travelers.

Ukraine received widespread support from private creditors to restructure its overseas bonds, allowing the nation to secure much-needed debt relief to finance its fight against Russian aggression, Bloomberg News reported. The agreement more than two years after Russia’s invasion marks a swift resolution of the debt revamp following two rounds of negotiations in June and July, in which Kyiv asked bondholders to accept bigger losses than they initially aimed for.

Switzerland's federal criminal court on Wednesday convicted two top managers of a Saudi oil company on charges including fraud and money laundering in a vast scam that swiped at least $1.8 billion from a Malaysian state-owned investment fund, the Associated Press reported. PetroSaudi executive Tarek Obaid, a Saudi-Swiss dual national, received a seven-year sentence and British-Swiss associate Patrick Mahony was handed a six-year sentence from the Federal Criminal Court in southern Bellinzona, officials said.

The Czech central bank is in the process of easing its monetary policy but interest rates will stay higher than what they used to be over the past 10 years, according to Governor Ales Michl, Bloomberg News reported. Rate setters in Prague need to keep borrowing costs elevated for a longer period of time and avoid making rushed, ad-hoc monetary policy steps and experiments, Michl wrote in remarks about his trip to the annual gathering of policymakers and academics in Jackson Hole. “It’s better to have a more consistent, but overall more restrictive policy,” he said.

Thousands of current and former employees at British clothing retailer Next Plc won an equal pay claim in a ruling that could have significant repercussions for similar cases in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The employment tribunal said in a ruling published on Tuesday that Next’s in-store sales workers, who are mostly women and paid lower hourly rates, were put at a particular disadvantage when compared with men doing equal work.

Sweden’s major banks pose a vulnerability to the financial system due to their exposure to “highly-indebted property companies,” according to minutes from the Riksbank’s policy meeting earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported. The property risks are mainly operational, for example from elevated and still rising levels of vacancies in the office segment, as well as a high rate of bankruptcies in the near term, Olof Sandstedt, the bank’s head of financial stability, said in the statement. “This means that there is still a risk that the banks’ loan losses may increase,” Standstedt said.

Sentiment at German companies edged lower this month, as Europe’s largest economy shows little sign of a recovery amid a persistent manufacturing slump, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Ifo Institute’s business-climate index fell to 86.6 in August, from 87.0 in July, data showed Monday. It marked the fourth decline in as many months. “The German economy is increasingly falling into crisis,” Clemens Fuest, president of the Ifo Institute, said. Companies assessed their current situation as worse, and expectations for the future were more pessimistic, he said.

German chipmaker Infineon has settled a more than decade-long legal dispute over insolvent former unit Qimonda, agreeing to pay a higher than initially planned 753.5 million euros ($837 million), both companies said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The settlement with Qimonda insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe will not affect Infineon's operating profitability, a company spokesperson said, adding that it had already taken provisions amounting to 221 million euros over the case.

The German government on Friday announced plans to provide about 3.3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) in funding for projects to make industry more climate-friendly, including by storing carbon dioxide underground at offshore sites, the Associated Press reported. Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy and is home to many energy-intensive industries, aims to cut its emissions to “net zero” by 2045. The new program is aimed largely at medium-sized companies. The Economy Ministry plans to launch the program, which also covers projects to shift to more climate-friendly production, next month.

The first ever Green leader of Bristol has warned that the city council is at risk of going bankrupt unless urgent action is taken, BBC.com reported. Councillor Tony Dyer has revealed that the authority presently faces an overspend of £22m. A savings programme is being developed, with warnings that some charges will also rise. But there is already criticism from campaigners, with accusations that the Greens have rowed back on earlier pledges. Money was already tight, but extra costs have come to light, and planned savings have fallen short.